Crete Rotary Club
Crete, Nebraska
 
Greetings and Happy Mother's Day!
 
On Wednesday we held our regularly scheduled meeting at the VFW. A number of club business items were discussed. Primarily we voted in favor of making a financial donation the Crete Public Schools Sixpence Program as our club's District Grant project for the coming year. We have until May 31st to submit our application to the district. I will be contacting some members to assist in making that application this week. Part of the application process will be to identify what educational items (i.e.- books, learning games and toys, etc) we will be purchasing.
 
We would like to congratulate these four Crete High Seniors who were selected as our scholarship winners: Litzy Lima, Kiya Gamelts, Marli Stones and Camile Andelt. We hope to have them as our guest at a meeting this summer!
 
A signup sheet was passed around for those who can help with Pumpkin Patch planting on May 25th at 5:30. Our club has helped Russ Sears with this effort the past several years. If you were not at the meeting but can help, please let me know. It's a fun event!
 
We have a new date for our next District Governor, Kathryn Schubert's club visit. She will attend the August 9th meeting. 
 
Marilea shared with us the details of CPS Foundation's Spelling Bee fundraising event to be held on August 4th. I'm hoping our club can enter two teams of 4 members each. There will be club emails sent soon with more details.
 
We were privileged to have Azariah Lawal speak to us about what it’s like to come here as a legal immigrant from Nigeria.  He came here January 4th 2018 in search of the American Dream.  He went through years of applying for a Visa, getting his GRE, and then coming to America.  He was $15,000 in debt and came here with no money. 
 
He learned quickly that although he was legally in the country, employers could not hire him.  He tried to get into the military, but he didn’t have the documentation needed there, either.  The People’s City Mission in Lincoln helped him the most.  It was discouraging, however, because there are many people who come here legally, want to work, but they cannot because the process is so difficult.  Unskilled workers get Green Cards and can work, but skilled workers can’t get them and can’t work because of it.
 
There is a huge misconception for his family back at home that there’s a money tree in America.  He said he gets asked for money every day, and they don’t understand why he doesn’t have the money to send them.  He was asked about his family back home and he said they are safe and relatively stable, at least safer than other countries that have wars going on, but it’s degenerating.  Currently he plans to go to Union College in the fall for nursing.  His contact with Rotary began when he met a Rotarian in Lincoln doing a district grant in Zambia.  His church has ties to a church in Lincoln, so he quickly got introduced to the Lincoln East club and Rotary that way.  We were so grateful to hear his perspective and how hard it truly is for migrants coming into this country.  Thank you, Azariah, for sharing. 
 
 
Our next regular meeting is on May 24th at the VFW. We have Nebraska State Patrol Investigator Chris Tippery as our speaker. He will discuss efforts to stop human trafficking in our state. See you there!